Clinical Hypnosis

What it is: The American Psychological Association, Division 30, defines clinical hypnosis as “a state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.” Clinical hypnosis, distinctly different from lay-person hypnosis (also known as “stage hypnosis”), involves the treating clinician guiding and utilizing hypnotic techniques to assist patient in relaxing, accessing the unconscious, and then making changes to affect, emotion, and thought processes around different factors. Clinical hypnosis is considered a technique that can be utilized within any theoretical framework, rather than a framework for treatment itself. This makes it highly modular and applicable to individual cases.

 

Frequency: Typically meetings are once every week or once every 2 weeks.

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Length: The first session is 90 minutes. Subsequent sessions are 45-60 minutes.

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What to Expect: The experience of clinical hypnosis is not what culture or mainstream tends to portray it as. You will not be suggested to do anything you do not wish to do under trance, you will not be forcefully commanded to do anything, and you will have full control of your faculties and understanding. It starts off slow and then can be more fully incorporated to treatment, if you wish.